(HUFFINGTON POST) Ann Brenaoff, December 20, 2016 — ‘Help’ always comes with a hefty price tag when it comes to caregiving.

I was thrust into the role of being a family caregiver for my husband about six months ago and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: Aging is a big money-maker for a lot of people. No, not for family caregivers like me who don’t get paid a nickel, but for pretty much everyone else who comes in contact with an older patient. I can almost hear the ka-ching of their cash registers as they offer to “help.”

The goal of the health-care industry is to keep people alive for as long as they can. And if you ask me, there is only one reason for this keep-’em-breathing approach: You can’t make money off dead people.

Harsh? Not really. Think about it: Once someone is dead, doctors can’t run expensive medical tests to prove what they already know. They can’t hire specialists to consult about some new treatment that the patient doesn’t necessarily want. Nobody can’t charge $120,000 a year to warehouse your patient in a nursing home.

Heck, once the patient is dead, you’ll never be able to convince the family to pay $165 for a nurse to visit them for 15 minutes at home. Nor will that family pay $100 a day for a home health aide to come and change a patient’s diaper and then watch them sleep for four hours.

That transportation service that costs $75 per roundtrip to drive your patient three miles to dialysis would get nothing if he dies. The place that sells you his walker, his wheelchair, his oxygen tank ― they wouldn’t be able to earn a living if everyone was allowed to pass peacefully. The dietitians who offer meal-planning advice not covered by insurance, the kidney dialysis centers that bill private insurance $6,300 per session; the physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists ― your patient helps support all of them.

Source: Aging Care Is A Big Business — That Fails The Patient | The Huffington Post